The Palau de les Opérame production, "What the Hell is Opera?", travels to Bilbao.
24.02.2014
The installation, created entirely by professionals from the Valencian arts center, reveals humorously exploring the intricacies of the lyric genre
The artists from the current graduating class of the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo accompany the tenor from Granada on the stage of the Arriaga Theatre in Bilbao
Valencia. The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía production of Opérame . What the Hell is Opera? travels to the Arriaga Theatre in Bilbao next May. The Bilbao Association of Friends of the Opera will include four performances of this show, created and performed by tenor José Manuel Zapata, in its operatic program for young people, ABAO Txiki.
Allex Aguilera is the stage director of this production, with set design by Manuel Zuriaga, costumes by Carmen Jabaloyes, video creations by Miguel Bosch, and lighting by Antonio Castro. The set design, costumes, and props were all created by the Technical Team of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.
José Manuel Zapata plays a mad scientist, the son of a tenor and a nuclear scientist, in Opérame . Frustrated by his inability to follow in his father's footsteps, this new incarnation of the Nutty Professor uses his knowledge to build robots capable of singing, something he himself has never been able to do. The doctor, however, is unaware that he himself possesses a second personality: that of an Italian tenor, who takes over in moments of inspiration to perform the most famous arias in operatic history.
In a relaxed tone, with comical twists, surprises and projections, Zapata intersperses 'gags' with arias from the most well-known titles in the repertoire, such as Verdi's La Traviata , Rossini's La Cenerentola or Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann , in his accelerated course on the operatic world.
Operate Me. What the hell is opera? sold out all its performances at the Teatre Martín i Soler of the Palau de les Arts in 2012.
The production, in its first edition in 2012, also represented one of the first collaborations between artists from the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo and musicians from Berklee College of Music.
José Manuel Zapata (Doctor Hans-Franz Tenor) heads the cast. Alongside him, the singers from the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo: Anabel Pérez Real (Soprano 3000), Federica Alfano (Frau 4), Chiara Osella (Mezzo-sopra 2.0), David Astorga (R Dor Tenor) and Germán Olvera (Baritone) complete the cast.
ABAO thus joins the list of Spanish opera companies that have used Palau de les Arts productions to shape their seasons, which also includes theaters such as the Maestranza in Seville, the Baluarte in Pamplona, the Teatro Calderón in Valladolid, the Auditorio Víctor Villegas in Murcia and the Festivals of A Coruña and Peralada.
